This invention relates generally to internal combustion engines and more specifically to an apparatus and method for supplying the fuel-air mixture to a gasoline-powered engine.
It is well known that gasoline-powered internal combustion engines of the piston-and-cylinder type are used throughout the world in large numbers to drive various mechanisms, most notably automobiles and other vehicles. Matters of great concern are the fuel-burning efficiency, and thus economy, of such engines and the amounts of harmful emissions they introduce into the atmosphere. Accordingly, great efforts have been made to improve the operating efficiency of such engines, both for better economy and for reduced emissions.
Among the prior efforts are the apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,011,487 in which air bubbles are introduced from a compressor, or drawn by engine vacuum, through a supply of gasoline and conducted directly to the carburetor or intake manifold of a gasoline engine. In a variation disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,931,801, exhaust gases are bubbled through the fuel to heat and vaporize it for mixing with air at the inlet of an intake manifold. U.S. Pat. No. 3,800,768 discloses an apparatus for reducing exhaust emissions during start-up, warm-up, idling and high-speed operation, by bubbling air through the gasoline to produce a mixture that by-passes the carburetor and is directed to a fuel intake system between the carburetor and the engine. A carburetor supplies the engine at other times during normal operation.
While these and other prior approaches may have had some success in improving fuel economy and reducing emissions, none seem to have met with commercial success or to have gained general acceptance, perhaps because of their complexity, relatively high expense, or other disadvantages. The general objective of this invention is to provide a new and improved method and apparatus for use in conjunction with gasoline-powered engines to improve their fuel efficiency, the apparatus being relatively simple, inexpensive and readily adaptable for automobiles, either as original equipment or for later installation.